The relationship between the High Priest and his understudy TB Yoma 13

When I was a rabbinical student, one of my homiletic teachers said the best thing we can do when we become the rabbi of the congregation that has a rabbi emeritus is thank him for all his work by giving him a paid trip around the world. A colleague/friend of mine who is retiring this summer wrote me that he’s looking forward to retirement, but didn’t realize how hard it is to let go. Sometimes a congregation forces a rabbi to retire when he doesn’t want to. In either case whether consciously or unconsciously, the old rabbi could undermine the new rabbi’s position in a million different ways. Sending him away for a year allows the new rabbi the space to create his own rabbinate.

As a senior rabbinical student I first looked to become an assistant rabbi in order to be mentored by a seasoned rabbi. I went on a job interview and quickly learned that the congregation wanted an assistant rabbi, but the senior Rabbi didn’t by the way he treated me. You would think he would want to spend time discussing my duties and relationship with him, but that was not the case. At my interview Shabbat visit my fiancé stayed at his house while I stayed at a congregant’s house. After dinner he walked me halfway to that person’s home and then just pointed to me the rest of the way. He never introduced me to the congregation as a potential candidate. I wasn’t asked to speak until Saturday afternoon at the seudah shelisheet after Minkha. He must have felt threatened by another rabbi’s presence.

Did the High Priest have the same emotions as a rabbi emeritus or rabbi hiring an assistant when according to the first Mishna “they would designate another priest in his stead to replace him lest a disqualification due to impurity or another circumstance beyond his control prevent him from entering the Temple on Yom Kippur”? (Sefaria.org translation) At the bottom of TB daf 12b and continuing on daf 13, the rabbis discuss the impact of having appointed a kohen understudy in case the Kohen Hagadol, the High Priest, becomes ineligible to perform his duties.

“The Gemara returns to the initiation of the acting High Priest. The Sages taught in the Tosefta: If a disqualification befalls the High Priest and they appointed another in his stead, and then the cause of the disqualification of the High Priest is resolved, e.g., he was purified from impurity, the original High Priest returns to his service. With regard to the second, acting High Priest, all the mitzvot of the High Priesthood are incumbent upon him. He serves wearing eight garments and it is prohibited for him to let his hair grow, to rend his garments in mourning the death of a relative, to subject himself to impurity imparted by the corpse of a relative, or to marry a widow. This is the statement of Rabbi Meir.

“Rabbi Yosei says: The original priest returns to his service, while the second is fit to serve neither as High Priest with eight garments, because there is a different High Priest; nor as a common priest with four garments, as once he was elevated to a state of extreme sanctity he may not be reduced to a state of minor sanctity.

“Rabbi Yosei said as proof for his opinion: There was an incident involving the priest Yosef ben Elem of Tzippori, who, when a reason for disqualification befell a High Priest, the priests appointed him in his stead. After the cause of the disqualification was resolved, the Sages said: The original High Priest returns to his service, while the second is fit to serve neither as High Priest nor as a common priest. The Gemara explains: Neither as a High Priest, due to hatred, jealousy and bitterness that would arise if there were two High Priests with equal standing in the Temple; nor as a common priest, because the principle is: One elevates to a higher level in matters of sanctity and one does not downgrade. Once he has served as a High Priest he cannot be restored to the position of a common priest.

“The halakha is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yosei that the original High Priest returns to his service, while the second is fit to serve neither as High Priest nor as a common priest. And Rabbi Yosei concedes that if the second priest violated this provision and served as High Priest wearing eight garments, his service is valid. Rav Yehuda said that Rav said: The halakha is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yosei, and Rabbi Yosei conceded that if the original High Priest dies, the second returns to his service as High Priest.

“The Gemara asks: That is obvious. Clearly, the second priest may serve as High Priest after the first one dies without concern that their rivalry will generate hatred between them. The Gemara answers: Lest you say that the mere knowledge that another priest is in waiting to replace him is enough to generate hatred, and would be for him like a woman whose husband has taken a rival wife in her lifetime; therefore, Rav teaches us that this is not a concern.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Rav is correct in some cases for I have known great senior rabbis who have mentored their assistant rabbis and some rabbi emeriti who gave space to the newly hired rabbi to create his own rabbinate without any interference.